Judicial Reforms of Cornwallis

History of Courts

PRASHANT CHOUDHARY
ROLL NO: 11
SYBLS A

A project submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirements for
the Third Semester of the B.L.S course.

KES’ Shri Jayantilal H. Patel Law College

Mumbai
November, 2021

1
Sr.no Topic Page no.
1 Introduction 3
2 Judicial plan 1787 3-4
3 Judicial plan 1790 4-5
4 Judicial Plan 1793 5-6
5 Conclusion 7
6 Bibliography 7

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Introduction:
On 12 September 1786, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis took the charge as the
Governor-General of Fort William (Bengal) and as the Commander in-Chief of British India.
Lord Cornwallis was believed to have laid the foundation of British rule Throughout Indian
and various reforms into the Courts, revenue and services prevailed till the end of the British
Era in India.
Who was Lord Cornwallis?
Lord Cornwallis was a British army officer administrator and diplomat who had previously
served his country during the war of American Independence. He had surrendered along with
his troops to the Americans at Yorktown.
In 1786, he accepted the offer to take up the post of Governor-General of Bengal on a
condition that he be given the supreme military command as well. He arrived at Calcutta on
12 September and took charge, under his guidance the Cornwallis Code was developed which
contained provisions for governing the civil, policing and judiciary administration in British
India. He founded a Sanskrit College at Banaras for Hindus and this is today the Government
Sanskrit College in Banaras. He also established a mint at Calcutta.
Major reforms were introduced by Lord Cornwallis.
 Permanent Settlement
 Service reforms
 Judiciary reforms
 Police reforms
 Third Anglo-Mysore War
 Second term
Judiciary Reforms
1) Cornwallis established courts in the districts, provinces and states. The highest court
was the Supreme Court of Calcutta.
2) There were separate courts for civil and criminal cases.
3) Cornwallis abolished court fees and then lawyers were to prescribe their fees.
4) Government servants could be sued by people for their mistakes.
5) He also banned torturous punishments like the chopping off limbs, nose and ears.

Judicial Plan of 1787

Reorganisation of districts.
The number of districts in Calcutta were reduced from 36 to 23.
Appointment of collector.
A collector was appointed in each district. He was an Englishman. Collector was assigned
with two tasks to collect revenue and to decide cases arising out of revenue matter.

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He also presided over the Mofussil Diwani Adalat (district level civil court) as a judge. In
Mofussil Diwani Adalat when the matters exceeded Rs.1000/-. The Sadr Diwani Adalat was
presided was the Governor General. He also presided over the Magistrate’s Court as a
Magistrate, where he was empowered to try and punish cases of petty crimes and offence
upto Rs.200. offences having value of more than Rs.200 would be sent to the Sadr Nizamat
Adalat by the Magistrate.
Establishment of Mal Adalat.
Mal Adalat were revenue courts in each districts which exclusively dealt with revenue
matters. This court was presided by the collector who decided cases related to revenue as he
was an in charge of revenue matters.
Appeal from the Mal Adalat law to the Board of Revenue in Calcutta and then to the
Governor-General-in-council.
Establishment of Registrar Courts.
An assistant officer of the collector was appointed who was known as the Registrar. He was
appointed in each district who presided over the Registrar’s court which decided civil cases
upto the value of Rs.200/- But the decree passed by the registrar was not final until it was
signed by the Mofussil Diwani Adalat i.e. the Collector.

Judicial Plan of 1790.

Reorganisation districts into divisions.
The districts were divided into four divisions Murshidabad, Calcutta, Dacca, and Patna.
Mofussil Faujdari Courts were abolished.
Mofussil Faujdari Courts were the districts level criminal courts. They were abolished and
replaced with Court of Circuits.
Establishment of Courts of Circuits.
A Court of Circuits was established at each of the four divisions. It was presided by 2
servants of the company and they were assisted by Muslim law officers Qazi and Muftis. It
was not a stationary court. Instead it was a moving court which moved from district to district
in their respective division to try criminal cases. They visited each district of their division
twice annually.
Increase in Salaries.
The salaries of all judges of all courts were fixed and increased to control corruption that was
prevalent in the current system of justice.
Collector to make a report of the working of courts.
Collector to make a report of the working of courts he was incharge of i.e. the Magistrate,
Mal Adalat and Mofussil Diwani Adalat and send it to the British Parliament of England bi-
annually and annually.

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The Post of Nawab was abolished.
The post of Nawab, who used to preside over Sadr Nizamat Adalat was abolished as he did
not carry out criminal justice properly and it was now presided by the Governor General-in-
council instead.
Court Fess.
Court fees was introduced to reduce the burden on courts. Court fees was only charged for
pleaders of the court and for calling the witnesses of the case.
Questionnaire sent to the Magistrates.
A questionnaire was sent to the magistrates asking for their opinions on the prevailing
criminal judicial system.

Judicial Plan of 1793.

Separation of Executive and the Judiciary
The powers vested in the collector were administrative and judicial as he was also in charge
of collection of revenue and for deciding cases arising out of revenue matter. Now the
collector was only responsible for the collection of revenue.
Mal Adalat were abolished.
Revenue courts which exclusively tried cases arising out of revenue matters and presided by
the Collector as judge was now abolished.
All powers and pending suits of the revenue courts were now transferred to Mofussil Diwani
Adalat and thus not tried by the collector.
Executive subjected judicial control.
The Governor General and his council were now subject to judicial control. Any wrong acts
committed by them while carrying out their functions and outside of it could be heard or tried
and punished by the Diwani Adalat. Suits against the Governments by private individuals
could be brought forward and were tried by the Diwani Courts.

Establishment of Provincial Courts of Appeal at the four divisions.

Earlier the appeal from the Mofussil Diwani Adalat lay to the Sadr Diwani Adalat situated at
Calcutta. But this process for time consuming and expensive so provincial courts of appeal
were established at each division i.e. Patna, Calcutta Murshidabad and Dacca. Appeals from
the Mofussil Adalat now lay to the provincial court of appeal which were to be heard within
three months of filling them. These courts were presided by three covenant English servants
of the company. Quorum was of two servants. It was an open court and could try revenue,

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civil and criminal cases. They could also try cases referred to them by the Sadr Diwani
Adalat.
Native officers given important posts.
Native officers were appointed by the Governor general-in-council. Native officers were
made Munsiffs of the Munsiff Courts at district level. Thus court coukd try cases up to
Rs.50/-. Zamindars, Tehsildars, etc appointed as Munsiffs. Personal Laws of Hindus and
Muslims were applicable in cases relating to marriage, inheritance, caste, religious usages
and institutions. These personal laws were interpreted by the native officers who were
appointed to assist the court to expound the personal law.
Sadr Diwani Adalat.
It was highest court of appeal in India. It was presided over by the Governor general and the
Council who were the judges of the Sadr Diwani Adalat. Their function was to supervise the
lower courts and to hear appeals from the provincial courts of appeals when the sum of the
mater of the case was more than Rs.1000/-. Further an appeal from Sadr Diwani Adalat law
on the King-in-council when the sum of the matter of the case was more than Rs.5000/-.
Reforms in criminal judicature.
The court of circuit was merged with the provincial court of appeal. The power of the
collector as a magistrate was taken away and was vested in the judges of the Diwani Adalat
instead.
Uniform pattern of regulations.
Until now any new regulation that was issued did not follow an uniform pattern. This was
changed by making it a rule that any new regulation that would be made would have a title to
explain the nature of the subject matter and contain a preamble which would state the purpose
for enacting the regulation.
Reforms in Muslim Personal Law
The Sadr Nizamat Adalat was directed to follow the muslim personal law to try and punish
criminal cases but with some modifications. The relatives of murder victims did not have a
provision to pardon the murderer. The cruel and inhuman punishments such as cutting off
limbs of the offender were replaced with punishment of imprisonment and hard labour for 14
years.
Court Fess abolished.
Court fees which was imposed in the judicial plan of 1787 was abolished. The court fee was
abolished so that the people could easily reach to the court for securing justice.
Legal Profession recognised for the first time in India.
The legal profession was recognised in India for the first time. The pleaders of the case had to
have prior legal knowledge to be eligible to be a pleader of the court.

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Conclusion.
Through hi various judicial plans Cornwallis was successful to uproot the evil of corruption.
Though Cornwallis was a just administrator he was seen as a racial discriminatory as he
reserved all the high posts of judicature for the Europeans. Even though Cornwallis almost
perfected the administration of civil judicature, the problem of criminal law was still
prevalent as the criminal law was based on Muslim personal law which already had prevalent
defects in it.

Bibliography
IAS Preparation, This Day in History, Byjus, byjus.com, September, 12.
https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/this-day-in-history-sept12/
Anubhav Pandey, Judicial reforms brought by Lord Cornwallis, Shauree, MNLU,
blog.ipleaders.in, 2019.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/blog.ipleaders.in/judicial-reforms-brought-lord-cornwallis/
%3famp=1

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Subordinate Courts and Judicial reforms of Warren Hastings

History of Courts

PRASHANT CHOUDHARY
ROLL NO: 11
SYBLS A

A project submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirements for
the Third Semester of the B.L.S course.

KES’ Shri Jayantilal H. Patel Law College

Mumbai
November, 2021

8
9
Introduction:
Warren Hastings was the 1st Governor-General of Bengal. This article will share details about
Warren Hastings and measures taken by him during his tenure such as revenue reforms,
judicial reforms, the abolition of dual system etc.
Who was Warren Hastings?
Warren Hastings became the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal)
in1772 and the first Governor General of Bengal in 1774 till he resigned in 1785.
He started his career as a writer in the East India Company at Calcutta in 1750. In 1758, he
became the British resident at Murshidabad the capital of Bengal after Mir Jafar was installed
as the Nawab after the Battle of Plassey. During his term the First Anglo-Maratha war and
the second Anglo-Mysore war were fought. The Regulating Act of 1773 was passed during
his term. He supported Sir William Jones in the formation of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in
1785.
Judicial reforms.
The judicial powers of the Zamindars were abolished. Civil and criminal courts were
established. Two appellate courts were established at Calcutta one for civil and one for
criminal cases.
The criminal court was to have an Indian judge. Muslims were to be tried according to their
law in the Koran and Hindus according to Hindu laws. A code of Hindu law prepared by
Hindu Pandits was translated in to English. He also came down heavily on the dacoits in
Bengal.
Judicial system in Mofussils.
After the Diwani rights were attained by the colonial giant the role of proper implementation
had fell on the then governor of Bengal presidency Warren Hastings as his predecessors
starting right from the times of Lord Clive had condoned the oppressions of Ryots by
Zamindars any petty tyrants which was proving to be detrimental to the colonial
administration in these areas. Keeping in to mind such a corrupted set up Warren Hastings
went on to introduce reformative judicial measures because of the following reasons.
 Connection between Revenue and Judicial administration.
 No centralized judicial setup.
 Corruption in the courts.
 Atrocities of Englishmen.

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Judicial Plan of 1772.
Under the prevailing circumstances mentioned above Warren Hastings went on to introduce a
scheme of judicial administration in 1772 along side a system of revenue administration
which went on to law foundation of Adalat system in India. Under this plan the territory of
Bengal, Bihar and Orissa was divided into multiple districts and in each district an English
servant of company was appointed as the collector who was to be responsible for collection
of revenue alongside having judicial powers.

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